I’ve been a fan of WP101 videos since I discovered them four years ago at WordCamp Phoenix 2012.
The videos have been a lifesaver for me. Who wouldn’t want bite-size short video tutorials explaining how to use WordPress?
I’ve shared them with my clients, Metro Detroit WordPress Meetup group and included them in my learning WordPress post.
When WP101 announced yesterday that their WordPress 101 tutorial videos have closed captioning, I was thrilled to read the news!
According to the announcement, both the standalone videos and the WP101 plugin (that provides videos in the WordPress dashboard) will now have captions.
More People Have Access
By captioning their videos, WP101 is giving everyone an opportunity to discover their content, not only WordPress users who speak English and have good hearing.
The WordPress user community is worldwide and includes people:
- Who are deaf or hard of hearing
- In work or travel environments with background noise (do you ride the subway and often forget your earbuds?)
- Use assistive technology
- Who don’t speak English
- Who speak English as a second language
For WordPress users who don’t speak English, adding captions to the videos means the captions can be translated into other languages.
Benefits of Captioned Videos
I’ve been writing about the benefits of video captions and transcripts for almost two years.
With captioned videos, you:
- Reach a wider audience
- Get better rankings in search engines (text can be indexed)
- Increase video viewing time
A More Accessible Future for WP101
In their announcement, WP101 stated their concern about accessibility and interest in providing equal access to their video tutorials.
Future plans include adding captions to their Yoast SEO plugin video tutorials.
Thank you WP101 for taking the steps to caption your videos!
Thank you for this excellent and detailed review of our decision to closed caption our videos. We still have some work to do to refine our production process and get our older videos closed captioned, but we’re committed to doing so, and excited to make our videos accessible to even more people!
Thanks again, Deborah.
Hi Shawn,
You’re welcome! I love your videos, Shawn. They are a great WordPress learning resource. Last year, I made the decision to only promote and share captioned videos. Since I write regularly about the importance of video captions, I felt I needed to follow my own advice. Which meant I stopped sharing lots of videos. And sadly, that included WP101 videos.
I’m glad to share them again!